Page 20 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • June 13, 2012 owl was obviously plastic, but in the middle of our one outdoor barbecues that featured charming domestic wines, I noticed that the owl’s baleful yellow eyes, which had been facing off toward the street when I first sat down, were suddenly staring at me. My son-in-law and daughter told me it was a solar-powered owl, put there to discourage squirrels and crows. I felt much better knowing that. Wanting to show Kate, my granddaughter, some animals that were not sinister automatons, we took a couple of side trips. The Palo Alto Children’s Zoo is a charming little place with a recreation room full of scientific toys and an animal collection including ferrets, raccoons, and a bobcat who clearly knew he was the biggest beast of this turf. A half-hour drive took us to Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills, which my wife dubbed “the little hippie farm” and found utterly lovable. Hidden Villa was established by Frank and Josephine Duveneck in 1924, and is a location right out of John Steinbeck”s “Of Mice and Men” or “East of Eden” with James Dean and Raymond Massey (one of my wife’s favorite movies). The horse in the 1860 barn was plastic, but there were real sheep, goats, a cow, and the only birds other than crows and distant hawks that we saw on the whole trip. The place is a working farm, but for $5, a carload spectators can walk around, take photographs of the animals, and walk on trails ranging from an easy 1.5 miles to the “difficult” 10.5-mile Black Mountain trek. Warning signs tell visitors to beware of mountain lions and rattlesnakes, but all we saw besides the farm animals were chickadees and hummingbirds – always my wife’s favorites. We all liked “the little hippie farm” a lot and hope to go again, but I am bound to relate that there are more varied and numerous domestic animals at Abma’s Farm in Wyckoff, where admission is free, though nice people tend to buy something from the farm store to cover the costs. This point goes to northwest Bergen County. We also paid a visit to the Stanford campus. The Stanford Museum, which is free, is a must. One whole floor covers the history of Western art from Greco-Roman times to the 19th century. The Stanford displays are not on the same level as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but there is nothing remotely like them on this side of the Hudson River north of Princeton, which also has a superb collection. Stanford has the best collection of Rodin this side of Paris, great Western landscapes, a nice Pacific Coast Indian collection, and African tribal art and modern art not seen elsewhere. The Hoover Institute has one of the nation’s great archives and a friendly staff. All you need to get in and have expert staff members bring you rare materials out of the archives is a photo ID such as a driver’s license or a passport. The display of World War II propaganda art had some posters I had not seen before. My daughter also took us around the neighborhood and told us what property values were like. One house that would not even qualify as a McMansion in Glen Rock was for sale for $15 million. A house like the one she and her husband rent was $5 million. The place next door to hers looked like it would fall over if I leaned on it, but it’s valued at over $1 million. That place needed a total remake, with or without a bulldozer. Houses that would bring $800,000 in Ridgewood were many millions in Palo Alto, and they are not places with park-like yards and swimming pools. The civility and the friendliness we encountered while strolling with the stroller were pegged, I think, on the mellow climate, but also on the fact that these people have to be so well off that the strife that makes other people edgy is not a factor in their lives. Who has anything to prove when their residence costs more than the White House or the Taj Mahal? One of the hardest things to get used to about California is that the grass turns golden yellow in the spring and stays that way until the winter rains, when it apparently sops up enough water to stay dormant for another nine months. Native oak and intrusive eucalyptus trees dot the landscape of dry grasslands – like most of Africa. After we unfolded from the plane ride home and had a good night’s sleep, my wife and I got right back to work. I had a budget introduction to cover, and she had another assignment in Paramus. While driving through part of Glen Rock and part of Ridgewood, I think we both noticed for the first time how lucky we were to be in a town where the trees, the grass, and the shrubs were monochromatic, but affordable. “Good to see everything green,” my wife said. “Yeah,” I said cleverly. She was talking about the foliage. I was talking about daily expenses as compared to the lining of my wallet. Northwest Bergen County and northern California are said by many people to be the two most desirable places to live in the United States, if not the world. Which spot is more desirable, and in what ways are they different? Now that I have unfolded myself from the airplane seats and gotten myself back on a schedule where my body anticipates the sunrise, I can reflect on the recent shift in locations, landscape, lifestyle, and opportunities. My wife and I were quite glad to be back in northern New Jersey, but my daughter and her husband have no desire to move here on a permanent basis. Here, then, are reflections of what we like about each venue. Here’s one point for California: No one there seems to smoke cigarettes. Based on a recent survey, California has the lowest incidence of cigarette smoking of any state in the nation except for Utah, where the Mormons have religious objections. If your religion forbids or discourages suicide, you should also have religious objections. Lung cancer would be my last choice of a way to go, yet people still smoke. The number of adults who smoke in California is about 10 percent, but I didn’t see one person smoking or spot one cigarette butt on the ground the whole five days we were there. I do not believe I saw a single butt container, either. Among educated people who can afford top-end places like Palo Alto, cigarette smoking appears to have been eradicated. In New Jersey, about 17 percent of adults are smokers. That is still much too high. Discarding cigarette butts on the street is an act that should be fined on a level with parking offenses. We can all use the money. Politicians should have banned cigarette production 40 years ago, but we all know that the national politicians in both parties are in politics for the money. None of them cares about the American people as much as they care about the campaign funds from the cigarette lobby -- except just before Election Day. Here’s a second point for California: No one in Palo Alto fusses over lawns. Walking around my daughter’s neighborhood, I saw every kind of front yard in the world – except the kind with manicured grass. Two doors up the street, there was a yard where a sign proclaimed that the owners had received an environmental credit because they put in plants that do well in a dry environment. Some of the flowering plants were attractive. Other yards featured palm trees, a good-sized redwood tree, and any number of landscaping combinations. The strips between the sidewalk and the curb were also landscaped with, among other things, flowering jasmine. There was barely a space not covered with concrete where the shrubs and flowering plants were less than two feet tall – including the curb strips – and multiple trees in every yard. The back yard at my daughter’s house has some lawn because my son-in-law and daughter want a place for my granddaughter to play, but the yard also has an enormous palm tree that looks something like an elongated pineapple. At the base of the palm tree sat an owl. The New Jersey v. California Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: The Saddle River Valley Lions Club thanks all those in the communities we serve for supporting the 2012 Lions Carnival in Upper Saddle River and our annual Mustang car giveaway. Because of their generous support, we will be able to provide a significant amount of help to many local charities and volunteer organizations. We thank those who attended the carnival, the 50-plus business and friend sponsors whose generous contributions helped us pay our expenses, and the Borough of Upper Saddle River for the use of Lions Memorial Park. We are especially grateful to the many residents who volunteered to help us run the games, and to the Upper Saddle River Police, USR Department of Public Works, USR Volunteer Ambulance Corps, USR Volunteer Fire Department, and the USR Construction Official’s Office for ensuring that we once again had a clean, safe carnival. We congratulate this year’s car winner, Ms. Betty Kesseler of Mahwah, and thank all those who bought Carnival was success tickets. Over the past 54 years, the Saddle River Valley Lions Club has donated over $1,900,000 to sight- and other health-related charities and local volunteer organizations. It is only through the generous support of the residents throughout the Saddle River Valley and beyond that we can be successful in our efforts to serve so many of those in our communities who are in need. We look forward to your continued support of our charitable fund raising efforts including our newest: the Herb Bodensiek Golf Classic that will be held at Spook Rock Golf Course on Oct. 1. We hope to see you at the Lions Carnival next year! Should you, or someone you know, be interested in more information about Lions Club membership and our fundraising projects, please contact the Saddle River Valley Lions Club at P.O. Box 333, Saddle River, NJ 07458 or visit us at www.srvlions.org. Wilfredo Gonzales, President Saddle River Valley Lions Club Voters endorse candidates (continued from page 4) Waldwick resident, he was on the planning board before being appointed to the council and had previously served on the zoning board of adjustment. Drury is manager of Prestige Lock in Waldwick. He has been a member of the Service Employees International Union for 25 years. He has been involved with the Waldwick Soccer Association for nine years, and has been a member of the Waldwick Soccer Board for six years. He is a member of the Waldwick Zoning Board of Adjustment. Frey, a former police officer, is a fire inspector and arson investigator with the City of Hoboken. He is a member of the Waldwick Volunteer Fire Department. He is currently pursuing a degree in criminal justice and plans to attend law school. Welker is executive vice president for client services with Advantage Sales & Marketing, Norwalk CT. She holds a degree from Ohio State in family relations and human development and an MBA in marketing from Cal State, in Long Beach, CA. She is a member of the Waldwick Woman’s Club and a part-time party planner.